Thursday, April 03, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel Reporter
WITH the US slowdown, the Philippines’ biggest real estate developer said it is shifting its focus to the middle-income segment while strengthening its marketing efforts in the Middle East and Europe.
In a briefing on Wednesday, Rex Mendoza, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) senior vice-president, said residential sales of Ayala Land Premiere (ALP) , the group’s high-end development unit, “slowed down” leading to flat growth in the first two months this year.
ALP is marketed largely to overseas Filipinos living in the US, with 60 percent of its sales from this market. ALI said it has yet to see a spike in cancellations, which usually stands at 10 percent.
Since ALI saw a “tapering off” in sales abroad, the company is widening its geographical scope, including the Middle East and Europe in its marketing campaign. The company also shifted its thrust as it offers more Avida and Community Innovations Inc. (CII) developments, its mid-income offerings, to US-based Filipinos.
In the first two months of this year, ALI booked a 39-percent increase in sales take up year-on-year, Bernard Vincent Dy, the company’s head of international sales, said.
The property firm is also expanding its other businesses, especially hotels. According to Marivic Añonuevo, senior vice-president for corporate division, the company’s hotels such as Hotel Intercontinental Manila traditionally serve the corporate business traveler market, which is suffering from “tight supply.” ALI, in partnership with Kingdom Hotel Investments, will build two hotels at the Ayala Center. In addition, ALI also sold a parcel of land to the Shangri-La group, which will build a hotel at the Bonifacio Global City.
The company said it is “reviewing” the opportunities presented by the growing tourism market and is “studying closely” what kind of hotels it would build in its projects in the south. Among its ventures south of Manila is Nuvali, the company’s largest development to date in Canlubang, Laguna.
ALI is earmarking P24.3 billion in capital expenditures, P10 billion of which would be borrowed while the rest would come from internally generated funds.
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